Hi - my mother in law received her AIRE letter in the mail today - less than 3 months after her appointment, which is great. I have a question about the next step for her, and for her sister, nephew and son, who are applying in NYC at the end of June. From other posts on this site, it seems that the Boston consulate will write to the commune, request her birth certificate, and then she can come in and make an appointment to get her passport. Is this correct? It seems that her daughter who lives in Boston can make an appointment at the consulate there, bring her birth certificate and her mother's passport, and get her process started. Will her mother's AIRE letter suffice, or does she need to wait until the passport has arrived? And finally, will the AIRE letter or passport help the family members applying in NYC in June, and if so, what do they need? Her son is applying, as is her sister.

Thanks so much to all of you for your help - it's hard to believe this is actually finally happening - and I know we haven't even waited that long!

Congratulations to your mother in law. She should contact the Boston consulate to make an appointment for a passport. The consulate has to request a nulla osta from her comune, this takes about 2 weeks. Her daughter can apply now and she should reference her mother's file. That is all she should need (she will need her own BC and MC).

Her son is applying in NY and should bring his mother's Italian BC and his own documents.

Her sister and nephew will likely need copies of the documents submitted to Boston from your mother in law's lineage and her file number. NY may raise issues not raised by Boston.

Thanks so much. I have one more question. My partner (son of mother in law) and I are not actually married, but we have a 3 year old son. We would like to get him his passport as well. I am assuming that Peter (partner) can bring our son's BC to the consulate with him(it has been notarized, apostilled, translated, etc.) at his appointment - will he also need a copy of MY BC for our son's application? I have an apostilled copy, but as I was born overseas, it has to be authenticated by DC, and they won't do it via mail. Thanks again as always to this great community!

Peter should bring your son's BC to his appointment and your BC as well. It is not necessary to have your BC apostilled or authenticated. Your BC is not absolutely necessary but is always good to have.

......The consulate has to request a nulla osta from her comune, this takes about 2 weeks......

This is simply NOT correct. A Comune will not issue a nulla osta (police check) for a newly recognized Italian citizen who has never physically resided in Italy.

As part of the initial application process, the applicant must list all residences since age 18 and the consulate itself will take care of any checks that must be done based on that information. If no residence in Italy is listed, the Comune will not be involved at all. In fact, the consulate does this check even before one is entered into AIRE, therefore everyone is already cleared for the passport.

The fact that one may have to wait two weeks for an appointment depends on the workload of the passport department and/or how much signing the consulate general has on his desk or if he is even in the office to do the signing after the passport is prepared. It has nothing to do with a police check from the Comune if you have never lived in Italy and I would love to see this silly rumor put to rest.

I have to disagree with you on both points. Lisa's BC has no bearing on whether or not her son has citizenship and is absolutely not required for her son to receive a passport. What is required is that Lisa sign the atto di assenso. The form needs to be notarized and accompanied by copies of her photo ID.

The nulla osta requirement was instituted in Oct of 2010. As far as I know it is required for all passport applicants. When I applied for my passport about a month ago I asked the consulate and they did confirm this.

The listing of all residences on the application is for the consulate to check to make sure that you have never renounced citizenship. That is the only purpose this information is used for. The consulates do not run a police check for citizenship in jure sanquinis cases as your criminal background is irrelevant. Your criminal background is however relevant to the issuance of a passport as a passport can be withheld or not issued based upon that information.

Lisa's partner cannot take his minor child out of the country to live in Italy without Lisa's permission. Therefore Lisa must give her permission for her minor child to be issued a passport. In addition, if Lisa were married to her partner, the partner would also not be issued an Italian passport without Lisa's permission because he has a minor child with Lisa.

The nulla osta is a requirement for Italian citizens initially applying for and/or renewing a passport in Italy because they have residence in Italy. It is also a requirement for any person - citizen or non citizen present in Italy and requesting residence in a particular comune. A Comune will not issue a nulla osta for an Italian citizen who has never resided in Italy, does not currenctly have residence in Italy and is requesting a passport from a consulate.

jennabet wrote:Lisa's partner cannot take his minor child out of the country to live in Italy without Lisa's permission. Therefore Lisa must give her permission for her minor child to be issued a passport. In addition, if Lisa were married to her partner, the partner would also not be issued an Italian passport without Lisa's permission because he has a minor child with Lisa.

I agree with this statement, that is the purpose of the atto di assenso. Lisa's BC however is not required to accomplish this.

It seems that we will have to disagree on the nulla osta. I will track down the appropriate legal references to support my position.

The nulla osta requirement was instituted in Oct of 2010. As far as I know it is required for all passport applicants. When I applied for my passport about a month ago I asked the consulate and they did confirm this.

I concur ... received my passport in January and it was a requirement. I have never had residence in Italy

I agree as well. In fact this is specifically stated on the website of the Italian consulate in Miami. Requirements constantly change so, what was required several years ago may not be what is required today. This appears to be an example.

We heard nothing from San Francisco regarding nulla osta. In our case the applicant was told to make his passport appointment before he received his notification letter and to immediately send in the fee to the passport department with self addressed stamped envelope. If there was any sort of check done, I can assure you it did not take two weeks and I can also assure you it was not done at the request of the ancestral comune because at that point applicant had never lived in Italy and the comune had no indication whatsoever that the applicant was moving to Italy. Comunes do not authorize nulla osta for non residents of Italy.